# Remo Vemo Mining (Mission-based Mining) ## Problem Identification ### Mining is more fun with friends, but mining as it is right now does not encourage cooperation. Mining is best done solo, for a plethora of reasons. For one, you have to split and share loot with the other miner. You don't mine faster with a partner because of the time wasted staying near eachother. The monsters are all balanced around fighting solo, so there isn't any advantage to bringing a friend. And in fact, due to a lack of mob telegraphing and the mob aggression system, you can end up taking more damage due to the mob randomly changing target and getting a cheap hit in. But why is this solo mining bad? Because there is much more fun to be had actually working as a team. Beyond going to the station and stabbing a guy twice before getting baton'd to death, ashwalkers are actually fun because of the real actual encouragement to stick together, communicate, and cooperate. You start with some pretty shitty tools and you need other ashwalkers to carry you back to base and stitch you together. You really feel like you're contributing which main mining just doesn't have. Just remember that people love the savannah ivanov. Players want to work together but our game discourages that in this case. ### Mining is contentless, and the goals are self serving and generally pretty loose ended ::: danger Todo rewrite ::: Okay this is going to be very controversial, but there are all of two things you do on lavaland. You smack ores, and you smack monsters. There is genuinely fun to be had in fighting megafauna, but lets like think about the space we're giving and what we're putting in it. in 255x255 space you're killing some tendrils, smacking ores, and exploring ruins. out of those three ruins are potentially the most engaging activity here, with the first one being homework (that can be relaxing at times, but still) and the second one just being for the loot. Our non-megafauna mobs are so slow and so dumb that clearing out a tendril is straight up boring, with the only reason to kill mobs outside that being goliath plated suits/watcher accessories/crusher trophies, which do not benefit the station in any way, and diamonds from watchers, which are just an alternate way of "doing your homework". ## Proposed Solution and Justification ::: info Each info block will be a blurb on why this change is considered, and how it's combatting the problems. ::: Mining is still a zlevel, though it starts unloaded. There are now 4 slots for miners, and miners select a starting mech with their voucher. One miner picking one mech locks it out for the other miners, and each mech offers a niche for the team. Once each miner has a mech, they also vote on a mission from a selection of varying difficulties. ::: info This immediately places the players as a squad, and lets them fill a role in said squad so members aren't necessarily relied on but can perform some tasks much better than the others as to encourage cooperation. The mission voting and difficulty levels are so the miners can choose easier missions if all the slots aren't filled. ::: Okay, so what are missions? Missions are started when all miners are ready, and they generate a smaller mini chunk of lavaland for the miners to land on. From there they are given an objective, and they can't return to the station until they have finished it... or die trying! Let's talk losing after the justification blurb ::: info Giving a hard goal that each miner has to accomplish will bring them together. Death being the only out other than success will stop stupid shit like "mutiny" and safely place doing it as grief. There are no advantages to throwing. ::: Losing! When your mech is destroyed, you are also dead. Your corpse, and the mecha wreckage will be teleported back. The wreckage can be repaired back into a functional mech at robotics now, and you'll need to be revived ::: info Roboticists will already be tied into mining with making more mech equipment, so it just makes sense to make mecha repairs also included. As for your corpse, I think having your teammates (whomever survives, that is!) can take in your body. A full team wipe would also be really cool. Paramedic time! Since miners are going to spend a lot of time away from the station, making them interact with. ::: ### A small segment about mechas So one question I have gotten a lot from the discord call while I was writing this was "why mechas". There's a few reasons: * Splits modsuits and mechas so they no longer step on eachothers toes as a utility device. * Mechas can have their equipment be class based, normal humans cannot. Simple as, we can make certain mechas only able to equip certain equipment that makes the mechas fill their niche, but humans can equip and use anything. Just giving a starter kit for humans will not actually turn into dependency, if people can cut out cooperation they will (something something, optimize the fun out) ## Mission Goals * Set up a base, and defend it. Maybe involving bringing a resource back to the base? * Mine a special ore and reach a certain amount of it, while periodic waves attack you. * Kill a megafauna. Megafauna will be a certain distance away from the starting area but it should be mainly about the fight itself. The megafauna should also probably be tuned up to be more dangerous, because of more people * Ruin Exploration. Something something, reach the ruin and clear it to the end. This will require mapping changes to implement victory conditions to the ruins, and heck, generally these ruins should be a bit more complicated. ## "New" Mech Implementation specifics - [ ] Turn delay? - [ ] Component damage? - [ ] Tivi: What new voicelines are needed? - [ ] Should all the old modules just be removed or what (ex. extinguisher module) - [ ] Idk whats up with the "tools" below since it seems to ignore module slots - [ ] Robotics? - [ ] TBD ### Needed QOL - [ ] Autoreload port - [ ] Damage indicators - [ ] Component damage indicators - [ ] Autofire - [ ] Internal damage rework - [ ] TBD ## Mech classes Note that these will be taking mechs that previously were on station, and giving them new purposes. ### Driller - Base Mech: Clarke A mining mech for quickly getting through rock, with a power drill that melts through ore and explosives for large-scale mining. Also has potent weapons for crowd control, but nothing to sustain fights with bigger threats Tools: Power Drill, Satchel Explosives, Flamethrower, Grenades ### Engineer - Base Mech: Ripley A mech for support and area control, able to build structures like floodlights, turrets, charging stations, transportation. Able to replenish ammo of other team members and with its structures improves the quality of the surrounding area. Tools: Pickaxe, Construction Device, Clamp, Shotgun ### Gunner - Base Mech: Durand A beefy, tanky mech, for killing stuff with extreme prejudice. With great armor and heavy artillery, it's very important for any missions with a lot of big threats at range, but it suffers heavily from being surrounded. Tools: Crusher, Rocket Launcher, Minigun, Grenades ### Medic - Base Mech: Odysseus Medics are the fastest moving mechs. They have good mobility tools along with the ability to heal and repair other mechs, but lack good options at actually killing, so while you can quickly wander off for an objective, you better be nearby a stronger mech during dangerous situations. Tools: Pickaxe, Nanobot Healing Gun, Grappling Hook, Pistol ### IN CASE ONLY ONE MINER JOINS... Generalist Mech: Gygax So dang, you signed up for the teamwork job and nobody else joined. Your ticket will have an extra mecha unlocked for you that does a little of everything. It's a bit tankier than normal mechas, it has a slow regeneration, a bit faster... You get it. If others latejoin afterwards they may select a normal class, but this is just to help people fill missions and not feel like they're missing EVERY niche. Tools: Crusher, Grappling Hook, Shotgun, Flamethrower ## Potential Issues * What if someone dislikes a class and is being forced to pick it by the other miners being first? They are just gonna have less fun. * THE BIG PROBLEM WITH ANTAGONISTS. I have two choices basically, making shaft miners unable to roll as antagonists, or work them in with the threat of throwing the mission including killing yourself UNLESS you can finish solo, because if you all come back as corpses your teammates will rate you out once revived.